Han Yu felt an urgency.
An urgency to get stronger. But to do that, he would need a lot more beast meat than what he could afford with the silver he had.
'There's no other way. I have to get the magnet first.' Han Yu made up his mind and marched out to the riverside with determination.
This time, he took the more 'normal' route and did not go tumbling down the hill like last time. He had no desire to be mistaken for a particularly ambitious rock again.
"You're heading out again?" Once he got to the gate, the guard spoke to him.
"Ah! Guard Shen, having a good day so far?" Han Yu replied with a practiced smile. "And yes, I decided to take a walk. I heard the river looks really nice during sunset." He threw in the excuse with the confidence of a seasoned liar who had read at least one book on scenery descriptions.
"Hmm..." Guard Shen narrowed his eyes, suspicion brewing like old tea. "Very well. But stay out of trouble." He had no reason to stop Han Yu, so he let him be.
"Of course!" Han Yu said as he stepped outside.
"Do remember to return before the sun goes down entirely, though. We'll shut the gates." The guard warned.
"I know, Guard Shen. Trust me, I wouldn't want to stay out after dark and encounter ghosts." Han Yu placed his fist on his chest in mock seriousness.
"More than ghosts, you'd have to worry about beasts." The guard replied.
"Beasts?" Hearing that, Han Yu halted in his tracks. "But there shouldn't be any beasts nearby, right?" He asked, feeling wary.
"The guards have been stretched thin recently due to wartime duties. The patrol hasn't cleared out the beasts in the last week." Guard Shen answered.
"They haven't?" Han Yu raised his brows in surprise.
While the town was protected by formations, it didn't mean that it was totally safe from beasts. To prevent beast attacks, the guards would regularly patrol the nearby forests, clearing out any creatures that got within a twenty-kilometer range of the town.
"They haven't, and they probably won't for the next couple of weeks either." Guard Shen spoke. "So be careful. We won't send out people to look after you, so if you die, you won't ever get a burial and will be a wandering ghost." He tried to scare the boy a little, hoping that he would think twice.
"Me, a ghost?" Han Yu didn't know how that would feel. "I definitely won't stay out late. I'm not going into the forest anyway." He added quickly.
"Alright." The guard said, letting Han Yu go.
It was barely two hours till sunset, and the foot traffic at the gate had reduced considerably. Only a few carts that had been delayed were left, while almost no travelers could be seen.
Han Yu continued onwards along the riverside while watching the flowing water. Several fish leaped out of the river at random, startling him.
"Hey! I'll catch and fry you all if you don't stop that!" Han Yu shouted, but his words fell on deaf ears.
Or rather, no ears... as the fish had none.
"What am I doing?" Han Yu asked himself.
He was far too tense about seeing the ghost again, so much so that he was being startled by the slightest movement.
'I should hurry up and get it done with.' Having thought that, Han Yu began running.
About thirty minutes later, he finally reached the shallow point of the river where he had seen the corpse.
"Now then, let's see..." Han Yu went to the boulder. "Huh?" But as soon as he looked behind it, he saw nothing.
He looked on the other side, checked behind some other rocks, and even picked up a few pebbles as if expecting the corpse to have downsized itself to avoid detection.
"It's gone?" Han Yu's eyes went wide. "IT REALLY WAS A GHOST!?" The boy screamed, sending a flock of birds into the sky like an explosion of feathers.
He felt cold at that moment, but it was unknown whether it was due to fear or the chill of the evening winds. He shivered and held his arms close for warmth.
"No, wait. I don't have to look for the corpse. I just need my magnet." Han Yu reoriented himself, trying to keep his thoughts rational. "It should still be here."
He searched the area for another fifteen minutes but was unable to find any trace of the magnet.
"I'm doomed." That was all Han Yu could think. "No magnet means no cup scam, which means no easy money, which means no beast meat. My gains! My glorious gains!" He muttered to himself while holding his head in sheer panic.
A fish leaped out of the water, startling him again.
"Fucking fish!" Han Yu cursed and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.
He sat down on a rock and tried to think rationally.
'Let's say the corpse was really a ghost and took my magnet. Where would it go?' Han Yu wondered. 'Ghosts can turn invisible, so perhaps it's still here?' He tried to reassure himself.
Thinking of this, Han Yu knelt on the ground, kowtowed three times, and clapped his hands like he had seen priests do during ancestral worship.
"Mr. Ghost, please return my magnet. I'll sacrifice chickens for you." Han Yu pleaded.
He waited for a moment but saw no change.
"I'll burn funerary money for you too! A whole hundred notes!" He upped his offer but still got no response. "I'll burn a thousand notes for you!" He increased the ante tenfold.
He waited for any response but still got nothing.
'Dammit, the ghost is greedy.' Han Yu reckoned. 'Do ghosts have outstanding debts in the afterlife? Is there an underworld credit score I don't know about?'
"Twenty thousand? Thirty thousand? Fifty thousand? A hundred thousand!?" He kept increasing the amount, hoping to outbid the invisible specter.
At a certain point, though, a sudden cry echoed from the depths of the forest.